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Chapter 18 - Inside you god is hidden
The old lion said, "My work is done; now it is up to you. Do you want to go back to your own flock?"
The young lion laughed. He said, "Forgive me, I had completely forgotten who I am. And I am immensely grateful to you that you helped me to remember."
Gautam Buddha used to say, "The master's function is to help you remember who you are." You are not part of this mundane world; your home is the home of the divine. You are lost in forgetfulness; you have forgotten that inside you God is hidden. You never look inside
-- because everybody looks outside, you also go on looking outside.
To be alone is a great opportunity, a blessing, because in your aloneness you are bound to stumble upon yourself and for the first time remember who you are. To know that you are part of the divine existence is to be free from death, free from misery, free from anxiety; free from all that has been a nightmare to you for many many lives.
Amiyo, it was good that you became aware of a deep aloneness -- don't lose track of it; become more centered in your deep aloneness. That's what meditation is: becoming centered in one's own aloneness. The aloneness has to be so pure that not even a thought, not even a feeling, disturbs it. The moment your aloneness is complete, your experience of it will become your enlightenment. Enlightenment is not something that comes from outside; it is something that grows within you.
To forget your self is the only sin. And to remember your self, in its utter beauty, is the only virtue, the only religion. You need not be a Hindu, you need not be a Mohammedan, you need not be a Christian -- all that you need to be religious is to be yourself.
It has been immensely good that your whole being resounded with these words:
"Remember: each single moment, remember that you are alone." You are also asking, "My beloved Master, after our death will you still be, in some mysterious
way, with our wandering consciousness?"
We are not separate, even now -- nobody is separate; the whole existence is one organic unity. The idea of separation is because of our forgetfulness. It is almost as if every leaf of the tree started thinking it is separate, separate from other leaves... but deep down they are nourished by the same roots. It is one tree; the leaves may be many. It is one existence; the manifestations may be many.
I am with you right now. I have been with you forever, and I will be with you for eternity
-- there is no other way. Knowing oneself, one thing becomes absolutely clear: no man is an island -- we are a continent, a vast continent, an infinite existence without any boundaries. The same life runs through all, the same love fills every heart, the same joy dances in every being.
Just because of our misunderstanding, we think we are separate. The idea of separation is our illusion.
The idea of oneness will be our experience of the ultimate truth.
I have heard... there are six people on an aircraft: the pilot, Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, Rajiv Gandhi, the Catholic pope, and a young hippie. When something goes wrong with the plane, the pilot announces that he is taking one of the five parachutes and that they must decide among themselves who will take the remaining four.
Gorbachev declares that since he is the only hope for the spread of communism, he must jump, and taking a parachute jumps out of the plane. Ronald Reagan declares that he is the Osho - The Hidden Splendor
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